The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus that detects abnormal areas from luminal images acquired by sequentially capturing the interior of a lumen of, for example, a living body and that causes a display unit to display information calculated based on the detected abnormal areas and relates to an operation method for the image processing apparatus and a recording medium recording a program for operating the image processing apparatus.
There is a known technology for extracting, as representative images, images in each of which a region of interest, such as an abnormal area, has been captured from a series of image groups (hereinafter, also referred to as intraluminal image groups) acquired by sequentially capturing the interior of a lumen of a living body in time series by using a medical observation device, such as an endoscope or a capsule endoscope. By observing the representative images extracted from the image groups, it is possible for users, such as doctors, to reduce the load of observing a large amount of images in detail and thus to make accurate and efficient diagnoses.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-24727 discloses an image processing apparatus that detects regions of interest from intraluminal image groups that are sequentially acquired in time series, that classifies the regions of interest into groups based on feature data on the detected regions of interest and based on the time series positions of intraluminal images including the regions of interest, that selects a representative area from the regions of interest classified into each group, and that outputs an image including the selected representative area as a representative image.